4.1 Checking Normality
The normality of the distributions of all the tests used in the study
was checked. Skewness and Kurtosis values for the distributions were
calculated. Skewness is a measure which shows the extent to which a
distribution deviates from symmetry around the mean, while Kurtosis
shows the “peakedness” and “flatness” of a distribution. Skewness
and Kurtosis values of zero indicate the data are perfectly normally
distributed. However, values between ±1 are considered very good and
values between ±2 are considered acceptable. Table 2 indicates the test
of normality of the speeded cloze-elide test, multiple-choice cloze
test, C-Test and reading comprehension. Table 2 shows most values are
within the “very good” range and a few within the acceptable range
(West, Finch, & Curran, 1995). Therefore, we can assume normality of
the distributions for all the tests in the study.